Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/119

§. 4. the Irih nation, being excluded from the benefit of the Englih tatutes, were deprived of many good and profitable laws, made for the improvement of the common law: and, the meaure of jutice in both kingdoms becoming thereby no longer uniform, therefore it was enacted by another of Poynings’ laws, that all acts of parliament, before made in England, hould be of force within the realm of Ireland. But, by the ame rule that no laws made in England, between king John’s time and Poynings’ law, were then binding in Ireland, it follows that no acts of the Englih parliament made ince the 10 Hen. VII. do now bind the people of Ireland, unles pecially named or included under general words. And on the other hand it is equally clear, that where Ireland is particularly named, or is included under general words, they are bound by uch acts of parliament. For this follows from the very nature and contitution of a dependent tate: dependence being very little ele, but an obligation to conform to the will or law of that uperior peron or tate, upon which the inferior depends. The original and true ground of this uperiority, in the preent cae, is what we uually call, though omewhat improperly, the right of conquet: a right allowed by the law of nations, if not by that of nature; but which in reaon and civil policy can mean nothing more, than that, in order to put an end to hotilities, a compact is either exprely or tacitly made between the conqueror and the conquered, that if they will acknowlege the victor for their mater, he will treat them for the future as ubjects, and not as enemies.

this tate of dependence being almot forgotten, and ready to be diputed by the Irih nation, it became neceary ome years ago to declare how that matter really tood: and therefore by tatute 6 Geo. I. c. 5. it is declared, that the kingdom of Ireland ought to be ubordinate to, and dependent upon, the imperial crown of Great Britain, as being ineparably united thereto;